The Language of Innovation, with Doug Williams

Joining “The Innovation Engine” podcast this week is leading analyst and innovation expert Doug Williams. On this week’s episode of the podcast, we explore “the language of innovation,” i.e. a common vernacular that companies can adapt to help ensure innovation success.

Doug Williams is the Chief Research Officer and Principal Analyst at InnovationExcellence.com, the world’s go-to destination online for writing and conversation on the subject of innovation. Innovation Excellence gets more than 1.3 million page views per month, and there are nearly 25,000 members in their LinkedIn group. Through his research reports and articles on Innovation Excellence, Doug provides invaluable insights on topics like open innovation, co-creation, and new product development. He has also contributes to outlets like the GE Ideas Lab website. Before Innovation Excellence, Doug was an analyst at Forrester, where he covered topics including co-creation and open innovation.

Here are some of the highlights from this episode of the podcast:

Doug gives some background on a recent research report he wrote titled “The Role of Communication in Successful Innovation” and the survey respondents who were sampled.

We talk about some of the statistics that came out of the study, like 29% of companies don’t have a standard definition of innovation.

Doug covers some of the top sources of waste created by the lack of a common language around innovation, namely employee dissatisfaction and time.

We delve into an article Doug wrote for the GE Ideas Lab website on the future of the workplace that cites stats from GE’s Global Innovation Barometer 2014.

We talk about the difference between ideas, invention, and innovation.

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE

Interested in hearing more? Tune in to the full episode of “The Innovation Engine” podcast via the SoundCloud embed below:

Will Sherlin

Senior Manager of Digital Marketing

Will Sherlin is the Senior Manager of Digital Marketing at 3Pillar Global. He oversees the 3Pillar website and other web properties, hosts 3Pillar’s ‘Innovation Engine’ podcast, and manages 3Pillar’s social media accounts. Prior to its acquisition by 3Pillar, Will was an Account Manager at PointAbout, a DC-based mobile app boutique that specialized in developing iPhone and iPad apps. He holds a BA in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina.